"Oh, yes, we were so sorry! Of course, I don't mean to say we could
be sorry for any one's kindness; but two such lovely nosegays had
been sent from Hamley Hall--you may see how beautiful from what Molly
holds in her hand--and they had come before yours, Mr. Preston."
"I should have felt honoured if you had accepted of mine, since
the young ladies were so well provided for. I was at some pains in
selecting the flowers at Green's; I think I may say it was rather
more recherché than that of Miss Kirkpatrick's, which Miss Gibson
holds so tenderly and securely in her hand."
"Oh, because Cynthia would take out the most effective flowers to put
in my hair!" exclaimed Molly, eagerly.
"Did she?" said Mr. Preston, with a certain accent of pleasure in his
voice, as though he were glad she set so little store by the nosegay;
and he walked off to stand behind Cynthia in the quadrille that was
being danced; and Molly saw him making her reply to him--against her
will, Molly was sure. But, somehow, his face and manner implied power
over her. She looked grave, deaf, indifferent, indignant, defiant;
but, after a half-whispered speech to Cynthia, at the conclusion
of the dance, she evidently threw him an impatient consent to what
he was asking, for he walked off with a disagreeable smile of
satisfaction on his handsome face.
All this time the murmurs were spreading at the lateness of the party
from the Towers, and person after person came up to Mrs. Gibson as
if she were the accredited authority as to the earl and countess's
plans. In one sense this was flattering; but then the acknowledgment
of common ignorance and wonder reduced her to the level of the
inquirers. Mrs. Goodenough felt herself particularly aggrieved; she
had had her spectacles on for the last hour and a half, in order to
be ready for the sight the very first minute any one from the Towers
appeared at the door.
"I had a headache," she complained, "and I should have sent my money,
and never stirred out o' doors to-night; for I've seen a many of
these here balls, and my lord and my lady too, when they were better
worth looking at nor they are now; but every one was talking of the
duchess, and the duchess and her diamonds, and I thought I shouldn't
like to be behindhand, and never ha' seen neither the duchess nor
her diamonds; so I'm here, and coal and candle-light wasting away
at home, for I told Sally to sit up for me; and, above everything,
I cannot abide waste. I took it from my mother, who was such a one
against waste as you never see now-a-days. She was a manager, if
ever there was a one; and brought up nine children on less than
any one else could do, I'll be bound. Why! she wouldn't let us be
extravagant--not even in the matter of colds. Whenever any on us had
got a pretty bad cold, she took the opportunity and cut our hair; for
she said, said she, it was of no use having two colds when one would
do--and cutting of our hair was sure to give us a cold. But, for all
that, I wish the duchess would come."